I wasn’t sure if I should include the word ‘leftover’ in the title of this post. But then why shouldn’t I? It’s not a dirty word! We should be ashamed when we don’t utilise leftovers, not when we do! It’s our moral duty if you ask me, when you think of the scandalous amount of people for whom hunger is a way of life – and not just in other countries either. I’m getting really quite good at utilising leftovers in a creative way, but I’ve not always been that way. In the past I’m ashamed to say I have scraped perfectly good, 2 day old cooked veggies into the recycling caddy. But not now. Not just for moral reasons, but financial too. I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to chuck out perfectly good food. We enjoyed a gorgeous roast pork dinner on the Sunday. Bubble and squeak with fried eggs for lunch on Monday (vegetables used: roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots – it doesn’t have to be cabbage and mash which is what bubble and squeak is comprised of traditionally), then this for dinner last night.
This recipe is the best way I can think up of using leftover leg of pork (leftover belly would be good too). What’s your favourite way to use up leftover Sunday roast meat? Pork in particular, as I think it’s trickier to be creative with than say, chicken or beef. Lemme know! It’s good to share.
I used cold rice that was cooked earlier in the day, so the 20 minutes or so that it took for the rice to cook isn’t included in the time. Once your rice is pre cooked, really, it’s just a matter of chopping and chucking everything in the wok. You could even do the rice in the morning before work so you know that, once home, dinner will be on the table in 20. Hoorah!
Serves: 4 adults
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
360g cooked leg of pork, chopped into roughly 1cm cubes
300g (uncooked weight) of cooked white rice
3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of plain oil (olive or vegetable or sunflower)
160g peas (I used fresh but frozen are perfect too)
100g bunch of spring onions, sliced fairly finely (about 1cm)
300g cooked peeled prawns
Half a red chilli, diced
1 teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice powder
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of white pepper
1 egg
- Ahead of time (up to a day would be fine), cook your rice. Rinse well in a sieve, and then tip in the pan and add twice the amount of water to rice. I use a large glass to measure out the rice, which is roughly 300g, and use 1 glass of rice to 2 of cold water. Cover, bring to boil and then cook on simmer for about 20 minutes, or until all the water has evaporated which will be 15-20 minutes. Check by taking lid off and using a fork to have a peek at the bottom of the pan. Turn off heat when water has pretty much gone. Leave the lid on to steam. Set aside.
- First, your chopping: spring onions, chilli, garlic, pork. Have everything else to hand / ready.
- Preheat the wok over a medium-high heat. Add the oil, and fry off the garlic, chilli and spring onions. Don’t let the garlic colour. Stir fry for a few minutes.
- Add the pork and Chinese 5 spice, and continue to stir fry. Now add the peas and prawns. Heat through, stirring all the time.
- Tip in the rice, breaking up any lumps rice that are stuck together. Add the white pepper, soy and sesame and stir, breaking up lumps with a wooden spoon or similar.
- At the last minute, when all the rice has broken up and everything is piping hot (very important when dealing with pre-cooked rice) break an egg into the pan and stir through. Taste – you may wish to add more soy.
- Serve straightaway. Chop sticks are not required (I am embarrassingly bad with them).
Another delicious looking dish to cook! So many wonderful looking dishes.
I made this tonight for me and partner, using raw pork fillet, and cooked in the order shown. It was really tasty, we would both happily have eaten it all over again. Many thanks!
So glad you enjoyed it! R X
I’m really bad at judging the amount of rice to cook for a given number of people which is why I’m here looking at this recipe. Will give it a whirl later today 🙂 I fed a bunch of people a prawn curry last night but overcatered the rice by a factor of 2. I was thinking a half cup of uncooked basmati per plate, but this is evidently massively too much.